Brady's Bunch

It's been four years since Cynthia Leive became editor of Conde Nast's 66-year-old Glamour, and in that time the tall, slender and very pretty Leive, married to a filmmaker, has produced two babies and re-invigorated her monthly (a National Magazine Award competing against heavyweights as Newsweek, Sports Illustrated and Good House) and a circulation of 2.2 million at a higher cover price. The kids are 2 1/2-year-old Lucy and the recently arrived baby Isaac ("We're calling him Ike," said Cindi. "So without having planned it that way, we can now wear, `I Love Lucy' and `I Like Ike' buttons.") The ads, ram-rodded by Publisher Bill Wackermann, are booming as well (PIB says Jan.-May pages up 15.9 over same period in '04); the September issue, marking Glamour's 800th issue, is 43 pages ahead of the month last year. They're also teaming with E! Entertainment on a Labor Day weekend TV show (it'll be repeated all month) of the "50 top Dos & Don'ts of all time." And they'll publish a "Dos & Don't's" book next year. As Cindi says, no new direction but certainly "lots of brand extension." "Smart young women," are her audience, says Cindi, defining "young" as 18-40. Best-selling recent cover? Meg Ryan and her photo essay on famous women of substance. Needing "a backyard," Cindi says the family's bailing out of Soho for a townhouse in Cobble Hill, Brooklyn. And where does she find new talent for her edit staff of 80? Not fresh out of college except for the rare creative intern, but some from other mags, and more and more from newspapers and TV. Oh, yes, in her spare time Cindi's writing a book, but definitely not a novel a la rival Kate White of Cosmo.

Longtime Fairchild and later Business Week guy Wight Martindale Jr. has a book out, non-fiction, all about that "legendary" West 4th Street (Greenwich Village) playground hoops tournament. "Inside the Cage" is the Simon & Schuster title. Good stuff.

Travel & Leisure celebrates 10 years of their annual "World's Best Awards" on July 14 (Bastille Day).

I missed that Chris & Kevin Madden garden party linked to her magazine launch because I was in Florida plugging a book. At Boston's, a bar in Delray Beach decorated with pix of Bobby Orr and Mayor Curley, and Red Sox games on its TVs, I encountered a young woman named Sylvia who informed me she was a "nail technician." I assume that means "manicurist."

The IOC (International Olympic Committee) announces its choice of host city for the 2012 Summer Games on Wednesday. My money is on Paris. I don't believe, despite all the hype, that New York ever had a legitimate shot. Too much anti-American feeling out there.

GQ's Pete Hunsinger invited me to "kayak across Long Island Sound" on July 23 to raise dough "for an important charity." My kayak, regrettably, was at the shop.

Amy Rosenblum's the new "special senior producer" for the "Today Show's" 9-10 a.m. hour. She continues as consultant to the "Maury Povich Show."